Ursula von der Leyen re-elected as European Commission president despite opposition from Meloni's party
File photo of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen
The European parliament on Thursday (July 18)confirmed Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission president. She will now serve a second five-year term in a row as president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union.
A total of 401 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted in von der Leyen's favour while 284 voted against and 15 abstained.
The European Conservatives and Reformists group, which includes Italian Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and Poland’s Law and Justice, said that "a large majority of national delegations within the ECR Group have confirmed that they would vote against"but that the group would have a "free vote."
Ursula von der Leyen European Commission president: What does it mean?
Her re-election for a second consecutive term marks a vote for stability during a tumultuous time in Europe. Several key European leaders, such as French President Emmanuel Macron and in von der Leyen's own country, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz are faced with the rise of the far-right.
Von der Leyen's re-election would mean the EU's consistent position to keep up with the carbon emission targets in the times when the countries of the Global South are taking on the West for their outsized role in climate change due to historical emissions.
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For the United States, von der Leyen's re-election means a continued European show of competitiveness against Chinese tech prowess.
Who is Ursula von der Leyen?
Born in post-Second World War Brussels to German parents in 1958, Ursula von der Leyen is a member of Germany's centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its affiliated party, the European People's Party. She formerly served as defence minister in former German chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet.
A product of the London School of Economics of the Class of 1978, Merkel attended a medical school in Germany's Hanover and acquired a medical license in 1987, just two years before the fall of the Berlin Wall.
After joining German politics in the late 1990s, she served as a cabinet minister in Lower Saxony's government between 2003 and 2005.
Also read |Court rules European Commission chief Ursula violated transparency norms in vaccine contracts
She served as a deputy leader of Merkel's Christian Democratic Union from 2010 to 2019. Von der Leyen was seen as a leading contender to succeed Merkel as chancellor of Germany and as the favourite to become secretary general of NATO after Jens Stoltenberg.
As European Commission president, von der Leyen has helmed over two crucial crises of her generation: the COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine.
Her second tenure as European Commission president faces the challenge of a potential Donald Trump presidency in the United States amid war in Ukraine.
(With inputs from agencies)